EXAMINING THE PRELIMINARY EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SENIOR COMPANION PROGRAM PLUS FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN CAREGIVERS

Abstract Objectives A culturally informed, peer-led, lay provider model, the Senior Companion Program (SCP) Plus, was implemented to decrease caregiving burden/stress and improve coping skills, and social support for African American ADRD caregivers. This study reported the preliminary effectiveness of this intervention. Methods An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used in this study and a randomized control trial was conducted for the SCP Plus intervention among participants in three sites (N = 20). A sub-sample of participants (n = 7) consented to a qualitative interview about their experiences with the intervention. The Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, Friedman tests, and one-way repeated measures ANOVA were conducted for quantitative analyses. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative interviews. Results Results demonstrated that knowledge of AD/dementia (KAD) and preparedness for caregiving were significantly improved for all senior companions in the intervention group. Results also showed that caregivers in the intervention group reported significantly decreased caregiving burden, as well as increased KAD, satisfaction with social support, and positive aspects of caregiving. Themes from the qualitative interviews included: learning new skills about caregiving, gaining knowledge about ADRD, and benefits for the dyad. Discussions: Findings from this study implied that SCP Plus was a promising model for African American family caregivers as it benefits both the SC volunteers and the African American ADRD family caregivers.

Ungrading is an innovative pedagogical practice in which instructors give frequent, detailed feedback on students' work and/or encourage self-evaluation rather than assigning them points or letter grades.Ungrading has been shown to increase students' intrinsic motivation to learn, their willingness to take intellectual risks, and the quality of their thinking.Prior to the introduction of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) writing in academia, grades were shown to be a motivating factor for cheating.Ungrading removes the pressure of grades, thus making the use of AI and other services including paper writing and test answer sharing less enticing.Ungrading could be key to pushing back against the potential for the advent of artificial intelligence tools, which have many universities "alarmed."Educators at Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions, supported by their Director of e-Learning, planned and piloted ungrading in one undergraduate and two graduate gerontology courses.Twenty-five students completed pre and post-surveys asking for their reactions to ungrading, if their views had changed as a result of the ungrading pilot, as well as their perceptions of traditional grading schemes.They also completed scaffolded assignments with multiple opportunities for receiving in-depth instructor feedback, rather than grades, at various points during the semester.Faculty journaled their ungrading experience in order to recognize how it can be a disruptive, and at times, uncomfortable practice and as a result, educators can better guide themselves and students through the transition.This presentation will include an Implementation Guide for gerontology faculty who wish to implement ungrading.Towards the end of life, 75% of older adults visit the emergency department (ED).During acute health decompensation, most older adults with serious illness (predicted survival of less than one year) do not have advance directives and are at risk of receiving care inconsistent with their goals.To deliver patient-centered care, palliative care communication skills are essential, especially during the shared decision-making for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (i.e., code status conversations).Facilitated by skilled faculty and trained actors playing the role of a seriously ill older adult in acute health decompensation, the traditional palliative care communication training combines role play and individual feedback to practice communication skills.These evidence-based, palliative care trainings have demonstrated to improve communication skills in trained clinicians with enduring skills 12-15 months later.However, these trainings take a minimum of four hours with highly trained faculty and professional actors to role play, which hinders wider dissemination.To improve nationwide dissemination of evidence-based practices in code status conversations, we have leveraged virtual reality technology to allow clinicians to experience in-person, palliative care communication training.In collaboration with a virtual reality company, a 360-degree view, virtual reality training content has been filmed in a real hospital environment.Using the same evidence-based, palliative care communication contents, clinicians in training can now experience the role play in a virtual reality environment in one hour instead of four.By leveraging virtual reality technology, evidence-based palliative care communication training can now be disseminated with much less institutional investment (e.g., training time, faculty resources, etc.).

INNOVATIVE VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT FAMILY CAREGIVERS AND PERSONS LIVING WITH DEMENTIA Chair: Noelle Fields Co-Chair: Ling Xu Discussant: Allison Gibson
There is a continued need for accessible and cost-effective community-based services and supports for family caregivers and persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD).Utilizing trained volunteers may offer a scalable approach to filling gaps in ADRD care and support.This symposium will provide evidence for utilizing trained volunteers in innovative interventions designed for family caregivers and persons living with dementia.The first paper presents findings from the Senior Companion Program Plus, an intervention using lay providers to deliver a culturally informed psychoeducational intervention with African American ADRD family caregivers.The second paper highlights the Faith Care Family Project which utilizes trained church volunteers from predominantly African American churches to reach African American ADRD family caregivers.The third paper explores the PorchLight Project, a dementiacapable training and respite delivered by volunteers for older people living in the community throughout Minnesota and in select regions of North Dakota.The fourth paper presents findings from an intervention using trained, experienced Chinese dementia caregivers to be volunteer mentors to newer dementia caregivers in the same ethnic community.The final paper presents findings from a telephone-based, intergenerational reminiscence intervention with college student volunteers and persons living with cognitive impairment that incorporates digital storytelling.The symposium will conclude with a critical reflection on the empirical contributions needed to advance scholarship on leveraging volunteers to meet the needs of family caregivers and persons living with ADRD.
Objectives: A culturally informed, peer-led, lay provider model, the Senior Companion Program (SCP) Plus, was implemented to decrease caregiving burden/stress and improve coping skills, and social support for African American ADRD caregivers.This study reported the preliminary effectiveness of this intervention.
Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used in this study and a randomized control trial was conducted for the SCP Plus intervention among participants in three sites (N = 20).A sub-sample of participants (n = 7) consented to a qualitative interview about their experiences with the intervention.The Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, Friedman tests, and one-way repeated measures ANOVA were conducted for quantitative analyses.Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative interviews.
Results: Results demonstrated that knowledge of AD/dementia (KAD) and preparedness for caregiving were significantly improved for all senior companions in the intervention group.Results also showed that caregivers in the intervention group reported significantly decreased caregiving burden, as well as increased KAD, satisfaction with social support, and positive aspects of caregiving.Themes from the qualitative interviews included: learning new skills about caregiving, gaining knowledge about ADRD, and benefits for the dyad.Discussions: Findings from this study implied that SCP Plus was a promising model for African American family caregivers as it benefits both the SC volunteers and the African American ADRD family caregivers.

THE FAITH CARE FAMILY PROJECT: A PILOT STUDY PROTOCOL
Ishan Williams 1 , Noelle Fields 2 , Ling Xu 2 , and Fayron Epps 3 , 1. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, 2. The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, United States, 3. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States The use of lay providers/trained volunteers, to address ADRD caregiver needs may provide a scalable and culturally congruent approach for bridging gaps in ADRD care, particularly for African American families.Research examining the church as a platform for raising awareness about ADRD suggests that churches are well-suited to providing support and services to families affected by ADRD.This research protocol describes the development and testing of the Faith Care Family Project (FCF), a lay provider intervention for African American family caregivers in a church setting to address caregiver burden, coping skills, and social support.Guided by the revised sociocultural stress and coping model, an explanatory sequential mixed methods design will be utilized to test the efficacy of the FCF intervention with a sample of 18 church volunteer-family caregiver dyads.Specifically, the study addresses four aims: 1) How do church members and pastors perceive the key components of the FCF and what are their recommendations for implementation?2) Do the church volunteers gain knowledge of ADRD after the 6-hour, FCF training?3) Do family caregivers report more knowledge of dementia, less caregiver stress and improved well-being, more social support, and better coping skills after they participate in the FCF? and 4) What are the experiences of participants with the FCF?Data are collected at baseline, mid-intervention, post-intervention, 3 months-post intervention and through qualitative interviews.These evaluation activities will allow us to determine the applicability of the FCF as an effective, lay provider intervention for African American ADRD family caregivers.The Porchlight Project (PLP) is a 5-year study designed to evaluate the real-world efficacy of dementia capable training and respite delivered by volunteers for older people living in the community throughout Minnesota and in select regions of North Dakota.Volunteer regions managed by the Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota (LSS-MN) throughout Minnesota and North Dakota were randomly assigned to receive the dementia training and volunteer support of PLP or the usual care control condition with standard volunteer training.The purpose of this presentation is to describe the process involved in establishing the PLP within LSS-MN's routine programming for volunteers and embedding key outcome measures within LSS-MN's standard data collection process for volunteers, their clients, and their clients' caregivers.Various challenges to PLP integration included: human subjects research categorization for an evaluation such as the PLP; achieving survey response rate goals; and establishing a baseline data collection interval prior to volunteer training completion.Strategies to proactively address these challenges to promote successful embedding of the program include creation of a PLP coordinator position within LSS-MN, who is responsible for the day-to-day programming of the project, as well as the development of a robust, yet flexible protocol.The flexibility allows for navigating LSS-MN programmatic activities, such as changes to the LSS-MN internal database, fluctuation in staffing and/or volunteers, revisions to survey follow-up procedures and correspondence, and consideration for those who will not complete training (e.g.non-English speakers, etc.).This presentation will also feature baseline descriptive data from the evaluation.
Ethan Siu Leung Cheung 2 , and Yifan Lou 3 , 1. Baylor University, Waco, Texas, United States, 2. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 3. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States Objectives: Although many older Chinese Americans are expected to need intensive care because of cognitive impairment, a large gap exists in development of culturally sensitive interventions to reduce stress among caregivers in Chinese